Last year, entertainment sibling BBC Worldwide set up BBC StoryWorks, an in-house studio for advertiser-funded content, to make the most of this trend.

Video ad sales are also promising, although content marketing and programmatic are the main engines of digital growth.

Global News has started selling advertising outside the UK for a just-launched vertical video service for mobile phones, initially as static ads placed between segments. Vertical video ads could follow in 2017.

Digital syndication is also growing, but from a low base.

Egan is less keen on a paywall for some BBC.com content however, worried that potential gains are unlikely to offset drops in advertising as visitor numbers decline.

“We don’t have that conversation very often,” he says. “We continue to be a mass market play.”